In certain supporting structures, such as suspension bridges, fairly small service loads and deflections of the structure are routinely and frequently encountered, these service loads having fairly small amplitudes. There is typically no need to provide damping for these service loads, wherein the structure should be permitted to move in response to same. However, there is still a need or requirement to provide damping for larger and more significant loads, such as seismic loads or high amplitude loads, that could be imparted to the supporting structure.
The frequent application of lower amplitude service loads in known damping assemblies for these supporting structures create issues due to fatigue upon the sealing elements of the dampers used given the overall number of cycles, thereby leading to premature failures that require replacement of these assemblies.